Luo Shen is mythical figure of ancient China. She became popularly known because of a poem, Ode to the Nymph of the River Luo (Luo Shen Fu), composed by Cao Zhi of the Three Kingdom period.

It is said that she was Mifei, the daughter of Emperor Fuxi of prehistorical legends, and became a nymph after she drowned in the Luo River. (This river flows through Shaanxi and Henan provinces and the tourist town of Luoyang.).

A goddess of peerless beauty, she is, in the words of Cao Zhi's poem, as "elegant as a startled swan and supple as a swimming dragon." Light of carriage and attractive in appearance, she looks from a distance like the red sun carried up by the morning glow and, from nearby, like the lotus freshly borne out by the clear waters. She is of medium stature, between plump and thin, slender of shoulders and waist, fair and clear of complexion. Her tresses are coiffured like clouds over a pair of long, graceful brows. She has white teeth inside a pair of crimson lips, With eyes limpid as autumn waters, her face carries a faint smile vaguely suggested by her dimples. Refined in bearing, she is gentle and tender. Attired in a gorgeous costume and swaying skirt of silk gauze, she is crowned with a gold coronet set off by jade ornaments, radiating magnificence and fragrance. On an excursion outside her palace gates she is flanked by colourful banners and fluttering standards and followed by a cortege of graceful ladies in-waiting, she rides in a cloud-borne chariot drawn by a team of six dragons, with sea birds hovering about in escort.

She seem to be going ahead, or is it that she has stopped and wants to turn back? She appears about to say something but has not yet uttered a word. Looking around, she is full of a subtle longing and affection.

A personality unparalleled on earth or in heaven, she is as tantalizing as affection.

It is in an effort to catch this grace, this subtle, exquisite quality that artists have used her as a source of inspiration for paintings, shell carving pictures, inlaid or carved screens. Their masterly execution generally succeeds in winning appreciation.

Luo Shen and the “Luo Shen Ode”

The ancient person lived in He Luo, where is a plenteous place, left many affecting stories, especially the story of the goddess of Luo Shui, who was beautified as an elegant and kind belle, she was always young and always beautiful. She was called Mi Fei, and tradition said that she was the daughter of Fu Xi, she was beautiful and naivete, one day she went to play at the bank of river, fell in the river and drowned neglectfully, and was apotheosized as the Luo Goodness.

Another legend said that she was a daughter of a fisher, she was beautiful, lively and industrious, she can hunt and fish, and she was good at dancing and singing, was liked by all the people, unfortunately, there was a water monster, he always made waves and did harm to the people, made everyone at the bank of the Luo He feel insecure, and he said that only if Mi Fei married him, he would never do harm again, Mi Fei decided to sacrifice herself to rescue the people, so she complied with his request and chose a lucky day dressed and made up, parted with the local people with tears on 23rd, June, walked into the river at leisure.

The Luo He calmed down soon, the people of the banks didn’t have to suffer the harry of the monster, but the mi fei had gone forever, the people build a temple and modeled her golden statue to commemorate her, respected her as the “Luo He Goddess”, and come off temple fair, to this day, the people from different places gathered here, played programs to celebrate ceremonious grand ceremony to yearn this heroic.

After many years, the monster wanted to be the god of the river, and sent gifts to all the people in the Dragon King Mansion, especially for the Dragon King, he prepared a piece of largesse and bowed and scraped and adulated before the Dragon King, was liked by the Dragon King, so he was elevated to be the River God, and named him Feng Yi, but he was still rude and he was lascivious and seek a beautiful girl to gather roses, else he would make flood to submerge the cropland, and snub to Mi Fei, who also persuaded him with all she might, but he didn't hear and was still the same. Mi Fei was very dejected and lingered at the bank of Luo Shui on the nights with bright moon and cool breeze, lamented her deplorable life experience. 　

At this time, yi also lived at the bank of Luo He River, who accepted the order to get rid of the sufferings of the ten suns in the sky, and took his wife to live here and through his lofty archery shot nine suns down to accomplish his assignment, but the emperor thought he had shot too many suns and removed bows and rows from him, and didn't let him go back to the welkin, Chang E also complained him for entangling her, quarreled with him everyday, Yi was dejected and despaired, also lingered at the bank of the Luo He, then one day they encountered with each other, and fell in love each other at the first sight, confided pangs to the other and got emotive resonance, they fell in love, but this thing was soon knew to the River God and Chang E, Chang E ate the panacea and flied up to the moon and the River God found Yi and ask him to duel with him made waves and destroyed the coastwise houses and crop ground, Yi tried to explain, but the river god didn't listen and Yi had to accept battle, they fight closely and Yi shot the river God’s left eye, the River God was beaten and went to the Supreme God to accuse Yi, the result was he was published because of the harm he did to the people but Yi couldn’t see Mi Fei forever, qu yuan had recorded this in the “Tian Wen” : “Yi published by Superme God, dismissed the harm and aid the people, why he shot river god and met his wife at the bank of river”, but Liu Zong Yuan denied this at the “tian dui” and regarded Yi as a unruly, how Mi Fei married him? Mi Fei was a beautiful goodness and in the people’s hearts, she was the typical visualize of the women’s beauty of the Chinese Nation, so she was used as the object by the poets, the earliest one is Qu Yuan, who described that he pursued her, but her refused him in his “Li Sao”, but the most famous one is the “luo shen ode” written by Cao Zhi in the Wei Dynasty.

Cao Zhi was the sun of Cao Cao, he was clever and astute, had profound knowledge and cao cao liked him very much, and once planned to establish him as the prince, which made his brother Cao Pei envy and hate him very much, after his brother became the king, he wanted to kill him, compelled him to make a poem in seven steps, and removed him out of the capital, appointed him as the Dong E Monarch, moved to the Shan Dong Province Yun City, after this strike, Cao Zhi was disanimated and was dejected and sad, wrote many poems reflected his feelings during this period, “luo shen ode” was also written under this conditions, about why he wrote this poem, there were many discusses, some said that he was missing his lover or other purposes, Li Shan “Wen Xuan Zhu” excerpted one said that Luo Shen was the Zhen Fei in fact, which said that Cao Zhi liked the daughter of the Zhen’s, but his father gave her to Cao Pei to be his concubine, and Cao Zhi was very disappointed, late Cao Pei became the king, believed Guo high-ranked imperial concubine’s slanderous talk and forced Zhen Fei to commit suicide, at the year of her death, cao zhi went to meet with his brother and heard she had died and was very sad, then cao zhi knew her grievance and his brother’s love for her at that time and gave her relic to him, which made him very sad and increased his miss, at the way of his return, passed Luo Shui, saw her walked gradually from the water and said to him that she had given her heart to him but she couldn’t come out right and gave him the pillow which she had used since she was at her own family and then gave it to you to lat you remember him and miss me when you saw this, and another beads to him, cao zhi was like a imbecile and was sad and happy, and wrote the “gan zhen ode” to expressed his feelings and this article was seen by his nephew and thought this was too undisguised, and changed it as the “Luo Shen Ode”.

Many people oppugned this note, because Zhen Shi had not seen Cao Zhi hen she was young, she married Yuan Xi, who was the second sun of Yuan Shao, Cao Cao calmed down Ji Zhou and got her and gave her unto Cao Pei, so the parlance above was unvalid unauthentic, and someone thought “this is imitating Song Yu’s Goodness Ode, place hope on the monarch through Mi Fei, Luo Goodness is the figure of Song Yu” and it would far away from the major idea to give the farfetched interpretation, cao zhi had mentioned the place where he met the goodness, we thought this place should be the bank of Luo Shui at the Yi Jia Wo village of the Zhi Tian town, where he drewed the content of “Luo Goodness Ode” left the peak of poetic perfection to the afterworld.

“luo goodness ode” make the luo goodness popular in all the people and make luo goodness have a station in different art domains, and the Zhi Tian town of Gong Yi will explore the luo goodness cultural tour to add gloss for carrying forward the He Luo Culture.